The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Court has paved the way to prosecute for the first time a murder case on board a cayuco, by dismissing an appeal against the prison order of one of the defendants who expressly alleged the lack of competence of the Spanish justice system to prosecute crimes like that, if they are committed in international waters.
In an order of May 22 to which EFE has had access, the second section of the Provincial Court confirms the decision of the Investigating Judge of El Hierro to keep in provisional prison for "high risk of flight" one of the immigrants arrested for the events that occurred in a cayuco that arrived at the port of La Restinga on December 28, 2024 with 224 people on board.
According to the investigation carried out by the Civil Guard, on that boat eight more occupants were traveling: seven were allegedly murdered by the skippers (including a baby) and the eighth threw himself into the sea in a panic that they instilled in him.
The Organic Law of the Judiciary restricts the competence of the Spanish courts basically to judge those crimes that are committed in the national territory (a concept that includes Spanish ships and airplanes) or that are perpetrated by Spanish citizens abroad, although there are some exceptions.
Among these last ones, there are crimes against humanity, but also, since 2007, the facilitation of illegal immigration, when it is understood that the destination is Spain, even if the boat used has been intercepted in international waters.
The trials that take place almost every week in the Canary Islands (and in other provincial courts of the country) against skippers of pateras and cayucos refer to this legal precept, in which sometimes there are also accusations of manslaughter, if it is documented that someone has died due to the harsh conditions of the trip.
When one of these deaths occurs (due to thirst, hunger, capsizing or shipwreck), the Prosecutor's Office understands that it is a crime "connected" to the facilitation of illegal immigration, which enables the Spanish courts to judge it, even if it occurs on the high seas and both the victims and the accused are foreigners.
It is an interpretation validated by the Supreme Court repeatedly, but that until now the Public Prosecutor's Office had not taken to other crimes that may have occurred during the journey, such as sexual assault or murder; that is, intentional homicide with aggravating circumstances, not the product of the recklessness of chartering a patera.
In the Court of Instruction of El Hierro there are already two cases in which the Prosecutor's Office accuses cayuco skippers of murder, with witnesses who speak of torture, stabbings or even people thrown alive overboard. They refer to two cayucos that arrived at the end of 2024, one on November 3 and the other on December 28.
In this second case, one of the defenses has invoked the lack of competence to judge the alleged murders, because it does not see that they are necessarily connected with the act of chartering or governing the boat. If those deaths happened, which it disputes, they cannot be attributed to the context of a migratory journey, it alleges.
The order of the Audiencia de Santa Cruz de Tenerife rejects that argument, but dismisses it without giving further explanations. It only argues that, in its opinion, the defenses have not provided reasons that refute the criterion of the judge of El Hierro.
What is that criterion?
In a resolution of June 19 on another defendant, but from the same cayuco, the instructor exposes it clearly: allegedly, the skippers established an "authentic regime of terror" on the boat, "with vexations and violence", which led them to indulge in their blows with Guinean and Gambian passengers whom they blamed for the bad sea conditions.
In his opinion, the seven murders that allegedly occurred on that journey and the death of the eighth person who committed suicide terrified are directly linked to the crime that enables Spain to take charge of the case: the facilitation of illegal immigration (in this case, skippering the cayuco).
"There is an evident connection between them, the Spanish courts being competent by virtue of that connection (...) The crime of facilitating illegal immigration appears as a vehicle or instrument characterized and suitable for the successful commission of the other infractions", the instructor states.
